1. Field
The present disclosure relates to a method and system for controlling a virtual model formed in a virtual space, and more particularly, to a method and system for controlling a contact between virtual models, which occurs when a virtual model moves or transforms in a virtual space, in a stable and efficient way.
[Description about National Research and Development Support]
This study was supported by the Global Frontier Project of Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, Republic of Korea (Project No. 2014054667) under the superintendence of National Research Foundation of Korea.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, interfaces in a virtual space are being actively studied. Among them, many techniques about natural user interfaces (UNI) using a body motion as an input means are being developed.
An existing NUI technique generally detects a motion of a human body and then moves a point in a virtual space accordingly. However, even though a pointer is moved by receiving a simple body motion, a detailed behavior of a human body may not be implemented in the virtual space.
Each portion of a human body has a high degree of freedom. Even in a virtual space, it is required to implement free manipulation of an article by using a motion of a human body. In addition, it is also required that an input hand shape is applied to a virtual model and utilized for manipulation. However, in many cases, it is just possible to recognize and handle predetermined gestures and virtual objects of a predetermined shape. This is because it is difficult to model a hand motion in real time in a rapid and stable way due to complexity of the hand.
In this regard, an interface method for detecting a detailed motion of a human body and reflecting the motion to a virtual model in a virtual space has been studied. For this interface, a user directly wears a sensor device to a corresponding body portion to detect a motion, or a motion of a human body is detected using an image sensor such as an RGBD sensor. However, if a user wears a sensor device, it is inconvenient for the user to wear the sensor device, even though a motion may be exactly detected. Also, if an image sensor is used, the human body may be partially hidden during photographing.
Meanwhile, a technique for implementing a detected motion in a virtual space is also being developed. If a motion is implemented not to transform an appearance of a virtual model, computational complexity is low due to a relatively low degree of freedom, but its manipulating method is limited, and physical simulation between implemented virtual models becomes instable. In addition, if a motion is implemented to transform an appearance of a virtual model, even though a local transformation may be implemented in detail, computational complexity is too high to be applied as a real-time interface.
In addition, many existing techniques postulate that virtual models have two contact points. This is fur implementing a motion of a hand which grips an article. However, on occasions, more contact points may be formed, and also a physical interaction may occur just with a single contact point. Therefore, there is a need to develop an interface capable of implementing various instant interactions regardless of the number of contact points and the shape of an article.